1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to stator structures of motors.
2. Related Background Art
Stepping motors are used in a variety of outdoor equipments such as air conditions. A stepping motor in an air conditioner may be used to drive a flow adjusting valve to adjust the flow amount of refrigerant. The stepping motor of this type is equipped with coil windings and terminal pins connected to the coils windings. Generally, ends of the coil windings are wound on the terminal pins. A power supply line with a connector is connected to the terminal pins for supplying power to the coil windings. This type of stopping motor, which is normally installed outside, needs to be water-resistant, and is provided with a water-resistant structure that seals the section where the coil windings are wound on the terminal pins.
However, connectors that are to be connected to the terminal pins may often vary in size and structure depending on different motor equipment manufacturers. This entails problems. For example, the design of terminal pins of motors may have to be changed for each of the connectors that may have different structures and sizes.
Also, end sections of terminal pins to which a connector is connected need a high-measurement accuracy. If coils of a motor are wound on the terminal pins, and dipped in a solder dip tank or processed by an automatic soldering apparatus for solder-bonding the coils and the terminal pins, the solder may adhere to end sections of the terminal pins, which may deteriorate the measurement accuracy. Therefore, the soldering work at the terminal pins needs to be manually conducted to maintain the measurement accuracy.
Moreover, when terminal pins with coil windings wound on them are used for connecting the coil windings to a connector, the terminal pins need to be substantially long, and therefore bents and dents would likely occur in the terminal pins. Also, the long terminal pins may cause other problems. For example, when inserting an assembly of coil windings with the long terminal pins in a metal mold for resin molding, when injecting resin in the metal molding (potting), or when press-fitting coil bobbins, the terminal pins become obstacles.
When a connector housing is made of resin that makes up coil bobbins or sealing resin, and the connector housing is used as a female connector, it is very difficult, in terms of the use of a metal mold, to form a locking structure in the connector housing for connecting to a male connector member. For this reason, the locking structure may end up in having a simple structure, and the connector with the simple locking structure would often fail. Also, when hard resin is used as the sealing resin, coil windings would likely be broken off. On the other hand, when soft resin is used, the lock mechanism for connecting to a male connector member cannot be formed with a sufficient strength.